Vashti
Questions:
1. Who is the character of Vashti here? Why does she say no to the king?
2. When in your life do you choose to say no to powers above you?
3. What can we learn from the power of Vashti in this story?
Esther
Michael E. Fox, Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther (p. 66)
4:13-17 is the turning point in Esther’s development. She moves from being a dependent of others (all of them men) to an independent operator who, whatever the objective restrictions on her freedom, will work out her own plans and execute them in order to manipulate one man and break another.
Aviva Zornberg, The Murmuring Deep (p. 123-125)
Throughout her marriage, Esther has remained silent about her origins (Esther 2:20). Now Mordecai, who commanded that silence, urges her to break it. That silence was for the sake of this moment. Now she must speak, take up a position, or else lose her voice forever. This moment is all she has, her chance to make herself heard.... In her crisis, she is alone.... By accepting Mordecai's challenge, Esther fully enters, for the first time, Ahasuerus's world.... With a voice of new authority, she charges Mordecai with assembling the people and having them fast for her. Fasting may seem a dubious preparation for the fateful encounter on which her life depends: her beauty will suffer. But perhaps she is removing her last and most basic source of worldly confidence, as though to acknowledge that even the king's favor is, in the end, in God's hands.... (123-124)
Rachel E. Adelman, The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (p. 76)
The Megillah concludes with Esther, the eponymous heroine of our story, writing the scroll (9.29, cf. v. 32). Uniquely, she becomes the one female author in the biblical canon, engaging in writing as a mode of reflexivity, the means by which the self is reclaimed as subject, free from the view of male ogle, released from the husband’s rule in palace or home. She moves from silence to author-ity, not only as author of the Megillah, but also as a maker of laws and customs incumbent upon her people ever after.
Questions:
1. Who is the character of Esther here? How does she develop her power?
2. What techniques of claiming power do you utilize that are similar to Esther’s use of power?
3. What can we learn from the power of Esther in this story? How is she different from Vashti?
אסתר דכתיב (אסתר ה, א) ויהי ביום השלישי ותלבש אסתר מלכות בגדי מלכות מיבעי ליה אלא שלבשתה רוח הקדש
Esther, as it is written (Esther 5:1) "And it came to pass on the third day that Esther dressed herself in royalty." Shouldn't it say 'garments of royalty'? Rather, that she dressed herself in the Holy Spirit.